God, you’re not a twat, you’re just not there.

(Related:  Holy Piss! and God, you’re a twat. Hence the title of this post.)

I stood in a beautiful old North Yorkshire church today, autumn sunlight streaming in through the stained glass, dappling the sandstone and organ pipes with blurred mosaics of colour. A good man lay dead in the simple coffin, a man we needed around, not a man who should have died aged 47.

He was a scientist who devoted his working life to helping developing countries keep food crops free of pests, he supported a dozen children through education in Africa and India and here at home he was a friend and liberal political colleague of the sort who gave me hope. His profession involved travelling, but he was prepared to forgo his new passport if it required the ID card our repressive government is about to insist on.

He was brilliant in mind, in spirit and in generosity. BA, B.Sc., M.Sc. and Ph.D., a true polymath and respected researcher and scientist, he was also hugely happy doing carpentry at home, pounding the streets with us delivering leaflets and talking to people about their political worries. Locally he worried about civil liberties, stood for the council, internationally he felt the key to development was getting girls and women into education.

He was a good man, deserved his three score years and ten and frankly this world is worse off for his not getting it. People in developing countries will die because of his passing.

So I stood in that church today. I sang the hymns, revelled in the beauty of all three, but listened to the priest with revulsion: he was a good, kind, gentle and sincere man. But the words he spoke were vile. God of love, of compassion, of the resurrection . Around me bereaved family and friends wept.

It was a beautiful building filled with light and grieving people, but there was no God to listen to the words. Afterwards, several believers struggled to reconcile their faith with the early death of a good man. They couldn’t.

The world is a worse place without him.